Section 3 of the Trade Agreements Extension Act of 1955 also amends section 350 of the Tariff Act of 1930 to provide that the President may--within carefully specified limits--exceed the duty-reduction limitations set forth in the act if he determines that such action will simplify the computation of the import duties involved. Section 3 of the extension act of 1955 further amends the existing trade agreements legislation by providing that the President shall submit to the Congress an annual report on the operation of the trade agreements program. The President's report is to include information regarding new negotiations, modifications made in import duties and import restrictions, reciprocal concessions obtained in trade agreements, modifications made in existing trade agreements (including the incorporation therein of escape clauses), and other information relating to the trade agreements program and to the trade agreements entered into under it. 1/ Section 3 of the act also provides that the Tariff Commission shall at all times keep informed concerning the operation 1/ The President submitted his first annual report on February 11, 1957 (H. Doc. 93, 85th Cong., 1st sess., First Annual Report on the Operation of the Trade Agreements Program; Message from the President of the United States Transmitting the First Annual Report . 2/ Since 1947 various Executive orders have directed the Tariff Commission to make a factual report to the President and to the Congress, at least once each year, on the operation of the trade agreements program. The latest of such orders--Executive Order 10082 of October 5, 1949-is still in effect. Section 5 of the extension act of 1955 amends the escape-clause procedure (sec. 7 of the Trade Agreements Extension Act of 1951, as 1/ amended) by providing that the Tariff Commission shall immediately make public its findings and recommendations to the President (including any dissenting or separate findings and recommendations), and that it shall publish a summary of such findings and recommendations in the Federal Register. 2/ Section 6 of the extension act of 1955 amends the escape-clause procedure by specifying--somewhat more definitely than did the previous legislation--the extent to which increased imports must affect an industry before serious injury can be attributed to such imports, and by defining a "domestic industry" for escape-clause purposes. Under the amendments increased imports, either actual or relative to domestic production, are to be considered as the cause or threat of serious injury to the domestic industry producing like or directly competitive products when the Tariff Commission finds that such increased imports have contributed substantially toward causing or threatening serious injury to such industry. Under the amended escape-clause provision, the term "domestic industry producing like or directly competitive products" is defined as "that portion or subdivision of the producing organizations 1 For a detailed discussion of the escape-clause procedure, see ch. 3 of this report and Operation of the Trade Agreements Program (fourth report), pp. 31-32. 2/ Before this amendment, the law required only that the Tariff Commission submit a copy of its report and recommendations to the Senate Committee on Finance and the House Committee on Ways and Means within 60 days after it had made its report to the President, or sooner if the President had acted on the Commission's recommendations. In practice, the Commission made public its report at the same time that it submitted the report to the two congressional committees. in commercial manufacturing, assembling, processing, extracting, growing, or otherwise producing like or directly competitive products quantities." Where the producing organizations are engaged in operations involving the production of more than one product, section 6 directs the Tariff Commission to distinguish or separate from the other operations of the producing organizations, so far as practicable, those operations that involve the like or directly competitive products concerned in an escape-clause investigation. Section 7 of the extension act of 1955 amends the existing trade agreements legislation by providing that whenever the Director of the Office of Defense Mobilization has reason to believe that any article is being imported into the United States in such quantities as to threaten to impair the national security, he shall so advise the President. If the President agrees that there is reason for such belief, he shall cause an immediate investigation to be made to determine the facts. If, on the basis of such investigation and findings and of recommendations made in connection therewith, the President finds that the article is being imported in such quantities as to threaten to impair the national security, he shall take such action as he deems necessary to adjust the imports of such article to a level that will not threaten to impair the national security. PROPOSED LEGISLATION CONCERNING UNITED STATES The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade does not specifically provide for any organization for its administration. From time to time the Contracting Parties have met to consider matters arising out of the application of the agreement, but without a permanent organization. As originally adopted, the General Agreement contemplated that its general provisions would be superseded by the proposed Charter for an International Trade Organization. In 1950, when it became apparent that the proposed International Trade Organization would not be established in the foreseeable future, the Contracting Parties decided to devise methods for dealing with urgent problems that arise when the Contracting Parties are not in session, as well as for conducting tariff negotiations in the interim between full-scale conferences. As a result of discussions at their Sixth Session in 1951, the Contracting Parties established the ad hoc Committee for Agenda and Intersessional Business (later renamed the Intersessional Committee) to consider problems that require immediate action between the regular sessions of the Contracting Parties. They also adopted rules for conducting tariff negotiations under the General Agreement without convening fullscale conferences of the Geneva-Annecy-Torquay type. 1/ For discussions of the proposed Charter for an International Trade Organization, see Operation of the Trade Agreements Program: First report, pt. II, pp. 17-19; third report, pp. 31-32. At their Eighth Session in 1953, the Contracting Parties decided to convene a session, beginning in October 1954, to review the General Agreement and determine to what extent it would be desirable to amend or supplement the existing provisions, and what modifications should be made in the arrangements for dealing with matters theretofore dealt with in periodic sessions of the Contracting Parties and by the Intersessional Committee. The review of the General Agreement began on November 8, 1954, during the Ninth Session of the Contracting Parties, which was held from October 28, 1954, to March 7, 1955. Besides agreeing on a number of amendments to the general provisions of the General Agreement, and extending the assured life of the tariff concessions until December 31, 1957, the delegates to the Ninth Session negotiated an Agreement on the Organization for Trade Cooperation (OTC). The principal function of the proposed Organization for Trade Cooperation would be to administer the General Agreement on Tariffs 1/ and Trade. Under the proposed organization, the functions that have been performed by the Contracting Parties in their informal periodic sessions would be transferred to the OTC. Under the new arrangement, the periodic multilateral tariff negotiations that the Contracting Parties have sponsored would be sponsored by the OTC. The Organization would also serve--as have the periodic sessions of For a detailed discussion of the proposed Organization for Trade Cooperation, see Operation of the Trade Agreements Program (eighth report), pp. 20-27. |